Study: Infertility Treatments Are Safer for Babies Than We Thought

Today in phew: Kids conceived via infertility treatments aren't any more likely to have a developmental delay, according to a new study that followed children from birth to age seven. Experts have long worried that treatments like in vitro fertilization could harm the embryo at an early, sensitive stage and lead to lifelong disability, so this is a huge relief for parents.

"When we began our study, there was little research on the potential effects of conception via fertility treatments on U.S. children," Edwina Yeung, Ph.D., a researcher at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, said in a statement. "Our results provide reassurance to the thousands of couples who have relied on these treatments to establish their families."

The study, published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, followed 1,800 kids born to women who used assisted reproductive technology (including frozen embryo transfers, ovulation induction, and intrauterine insemination) as well as 4,000 kids born to mothers who hadn't undergone such treatments, for three years. As the children grew, researchers screened them for developmental progress in five domains: fine motor skills, gross motor skills, communication, personal and social functioning, and problem solving ability.

At first, their results appeared troubling: Children conceived through assisted reproductive technology were at an increased risk for failing any of the five developmental domains. But scientists noticed that twins were more likely than single babies to show developmental disabilities—and multiples make up a disproportionate chunk of the infertility-treatment group. Once the researchers controlled for that discrepancy, the difference in developmental disabilities disappeared.

The results are good news for couples who need help conceiving; in 2011, 1.5 percent of all U.S. births were conceived with assisted reproductive technology (some 59,000+ births!), the study notes.

Siobhan Dolan, M.D., medical adviser to the March of Dimes, agreed that the results are reassuring.

"It's always good to have more data on longer-term outcomes, and it's great to see that kids are doing well," Dolan told U.S. News and World Report. (She was not involved in the study.) But she added that since infertility treatments often result in twins, there's still a little cause for concern: "It is a higher-risk situation."